Windows 8 – Run Towards or Run Away?

Some of you are probably aware that Microsoft recently trotted out Windows 8, the latest Windows OS (operating system). Windows 8 follows the loved Windows 7, which followed the reviled and hated Windows Vista, which followed the beloved and cherished Windows XP.

Windows 8 has been blistered, much like Vista was, for its usability issues. Microsoft tried to make Windows 8 work great on a touch screen phone, tablet and your desktop. By most accounts, they got only the phone part right. Touch screen tablet users got a pretty good product, but PC (laptop and desktop) users are howling, particularly the ones that don’t have touch screen PC monitors (none in our office – how about yours?), and are flummoxed by the new OS. Windows 8 requires users to learn a great many new things, and it’s difficult for someone who is an experienced Windows 7 or Windows XP user to sit down in front of a PC and figure where everything got moved to, and, where it goes when you’re done with it and want to pull the file back up again.

Microsoft has heard the complaints (boy, have they heard the complaints) and already have a revision in the works. The update is referred to internally at Microsoft as Windows Blue, and it is supposed to erase much of the learning curve current users of previous Windows OS platforms are encountering when they sit down at a PC and see the Windows 8 logo in front of them. Microsoft has promised that Windows Blue (or whatever it’s called when it’s offered to the public) will be available this fall.

Our advice is to get a Windows 8 smartphone if it strikes your fancy, consider a Windows 8 tablet, but run, don’t walk away from Windows 8 on a desktop. Get Windows 7 loaded on any new PC you buy, or buy an Apple. When the revised and updated Windows 8 shows up this fall, then take a look at it, and see if it’s going to work for you and the people in your office.

3 thoughts on “Windows 8 – Run Towards or Run Away?”

I guess XP was more loved than 7 although I like 7 just fine. I used 8 a couple of weeks ago, and I like it, but I’m kind of tech centered. It does take a lot of relearning. I could see how people would get real frustrated with it real quick.